The rubber products mentioned must in practice meet various requirements, and it is often difficult or impossible to meet these simultaneously. For example, rubber products and in particular vehicle tires are required to have good elasticity, low abrasion and good adhesion on various surfaces and are required to maintain these properties at high and low temperatures.
The service properties of vulcanizates or rubber mixtures used for vehicle tires are specifically adjusted inter alia via the selection of the rubber polymers used, via functionalization of the same, via chemical and/or adsorptive/physical binding to the filler and via the selection of the fillers and additives. However, a conflict frequently arises because optimization of a desired property impairs another property that is likewise desired.
Tire rubber mixtures, in particular for treads, often comprise olefinic polymers optionally having aryl side chains. Rubber materials very often used in tire tread mixtures are copolymer rubbers composed of conjugated dienes and of aromatic vinyl compounds. SBR rubber (styrene-butadiene rubber) is the most important member of this group.
Alongside random SBR copolymers, block copolymers are also known, and block formation here appears to have a decisive effect on some performance properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,301 uses particular block constitutions in order to improve the performance properties of a thermoplastic block copolymer which is intended to raise weathering resistance and impact resistance in rubber materials and resins, a particular intention being to increase heat resistance. This is achieved via blockwise differences affecting the types of butadiene linkage and affecting vinyl contents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,362 discloses a diene polymer modified terminally by a silanol group and optionally having a polysiloxane spacer. The diene polymer can be an SBR rubber.